What is Social Media?

Social media is any platform which allows the user to create and share content with the other users of said platforms e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

Why is it an Effective Marketing Tool?

The world is not the same today as it was yesterday, and the same can be said about marketing. While traditional media such as television, radio and newspaper advertising are still highly sort after, highly effective and exponentially accessible, these forms of marketing are arguably no longer as effective.

The reason for this is the change in behavior. Consumers are straying from mainstream media and moving in the direction of social media. What this means is that your clients may not be spending the same amount of time in a traditional media space. With this in mind, it is arguable that your clients spend more of their time online and on social media, and because of this development, your company should be present where your client is.

Why Social Media Builds Strong Customer Relations?

Traditional media, is traditionally invasive and often gets in the way of people getting what they truly want. A good example of this is TV. While movies attract people to a time slot, the reason channels have the capacity to air those movies is because they sell advertising space between their content. While some of these ads might be entertaining, there are a large number of consumers who would rather change the channel to another show temporarily and evade this advertising altogether. What this outlines regarding TV, is that it is a fairly impersonal platform which does not allow the consumer to interact with the company.

Opposed to traditional media, social media offers a space where the viewer is allowed to be a part of the criticism of the content. Consumers are allowed to generate their own content, sometimes even directly from the platform, which makes it accessible. Lastly, however critically important is money. People are able to generate large amounts of money using social media (The Kardashians). While this may be part one, part 2 is without a doubt the fact that social media is free to use while tradition media such as television stations which offer premium content often have a premium price tag to match. Consumers have realized this and will sacrifice their satellite TV fees for better internet because of it is content diverse uses content.